Saturday Music Special – Rio – Vale Mike Nesmith

By Anton Lang ~

This is a sad day in the history of modern music, as we mark the passing of Mike Nesmith. This video clip is of his classic song Rio, the first music video.

Link to video clip at You Tube

This video was posted to You Tube by Michael Nesmith’s Videoranch

It is indeed a sad day in the history of modern music, and while there are so many people in modern music with perhaps a far greater stature than Mike Nesmith, every single one of them owes thanks to Mike Nesmith. Many others will comment on Mike Nesmith, mainly as a member of the famed band from the 1960s, The Monkees. Some may even comment on his solo career and his biggest solo hit, Joanne. Very few will comment on this song, Rio,  and its history, a history so closely related to Australia.

This might even seem a strange song to be playing to mark his passing, but this one song has such an interesting history. If the truth is to be told, this song should go down as one of the most influential songs in the history of modern music. Again, that sounds like a pretty wild claim for a song that never even made it into any of the charts in the U.S. and perhaps 99 people out of 100 would not even have heard it, and even less would have any idea as to why it actually is such an influential song. Coming as I do from Australia, I was in my mid 20s when this song was released, and because I was here in Australia, I was aware of that history about this song.

Mike Nesmith was one of the four members of The Monkees, that manufactured U.S. band of the mid to late 60’s. They had some pretty big hits, but in actuality, the boys were just a front for those behind them in the shadows who cleverly manipulated them to be what they wanted them to be. As the Monkees became more successful, the four guys actually started to want to have some say in their direction, and even to write and play and record some of their own music. Their first hit was written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. Their second hit was I’m A Believer, a cover of the Neil Diamond song, in a time before Neil Diamond was Neil Diamond in his own right. Neil also wrote a couple of their other hits. All the four guys in the Monkees did was to provide the voices for these songs. Seeking to be masters of their own destiny put them into conflict with those who just wanted ‘bubble gum’ music and tensions developed. Nesmith actually had a couple of songs placed onto Monkees albums, and one actually became a minor hit for the band. Rather than give into the four guys, management instead effectively sidelined them, and the band literally just folded.

Nesmith went off on his own with his first solo venture after the Monkees, with his own band, The First National Band, and their second song was the hit Joanne. He then formed his second band, The Second National Band, and at the same time, opened his own recording studio, as part of his multimedia Company, Pacific Arts. This band’s second album was From A Radio Engine To The Photon Wing, and the single lifted from that album was this featured song Rio. It was not picked up by radio for one reason, the song’s length at just over six minutes, in a time when any song that was being played on radio was mostly around three minutes in length, and radio station managements typically frowned on longer songs, unless they were absolutely perfect in every sense, and this song seemed to be, well, pretty average really, so it got virtually no airplay whatsoever. The song did absolutely nothing, anywhere, except for Australia and New Zealand, where the song actually made it to Number One in both Countries, and therein lies the real story of this songs fame and now legendary status, although it is still mostly unknown.

For this song, Nesmith did something totally unheard of in the music industry. He was asked to make a music clip of the song, and having seen so many clips from bands miming their songs, he decided to do something different, and make a clip with a theme behind it. He spent a good deal of his own money making a movie clip of the song, something he actually could now do, as he was running his own music studio, because none of the major music Companies would have given approval to do something on the scale Nesmith did with this song. Prior to this, nearly every song that had a TV clip was just a voice over of the song with images of the band or the singer, or a clip of the band performing the song live, or in the studio playing along as the audio was cut over the top of them as they lip synced along with the audio. Record Companies just wanted the single to sell, or the album, and promotion on this scale with a video was almost as an afterthought, if at all. Some clips were a little more elaborate, but not much really. Nowadays, we see these music videos all the time, so as you look at this one, it seems to be nothing different from what we see today, but keep in mind here that was done by Mike Nesmith in 1977, forty four years ago. Nesmith actually made a themed short movie of his song, something that had been done before, but never on the scale that Nesmith did. He spent Millions on the clip, all his own money, something that would never have been approved by an outside studio. Other bands and record Companies just shook their heads in utter amazement that anybody could do something so positively foolish on a scale like this. Nesmith spent more money on this one clip than most Hollywood producers were spending on full length feature movies at the time. It was considered an absolute folly on the part of Nesmith, as people inside the industry just shook their collective heads in amazement. They also looked somewhat justified when the ‘movie’ and the song went straight down the toilet, so to speak.

So, just why did this song do so well in Australia and New Zealand?

Two things.

The first is its release was around the same time in 1977 as a song by Peter Allen. That song was I Go To Rio, which again was a locally produced song in Australia that did well here, in fact a Monster Number One smash hit, but again did not translate too well outside of Australia especially, and the Peter Allen song was a completely different song altogether, with the only similarity being the word ‘Rio’ in the title. Radio here in Australia did pick up on the Mike Nesmith song because it had the same name in the title as the Peter Allen song, and even though the length was frowned upon, it was catchy enough to gain airplay alongside the Allen song, and sometimes the two were mistaken for each other, especially during request programs. People would ask for the ‘Rio’ song, and the announcer would respond ….. the Peter Allen song, and the requester would say ….. No, the other one.

The second reason it did so well was because of two popular TV shows just gaining footholds in both Countries. The first was a weekly one hour TV music show called Countdown, in Australia. This show had been going since 1974, and after almost three years, it had a huge following in Australia. It was a show that featured mainly Australian bands, some clips from overseas bands, and a weekly Top Ten slot at the end of the program where the current Number One was played in full. Because the show was TV, there were some acts performing their songs live in the studio for the show, and other clips of bands performing their songs, so video of any band performing their song was all you saw on this TV music show, which was immensely popular in Australia, and had huge ratings numbers. The video of the Nesmith song, being as it was, at the absolute cutting edge of music for TV got virtually weekly airplay, helping the song gain widespread popularity, and besides the length, regular airplay on radio, where it had the added bonus of similarity with the Allen song. It was the perfect song for this format. The fact that this was a video clip of six minutes in length, that of itself was a major point going in the song’s favour, as TV producers did not have to find an extra song to work into the program, and that exercise was not an easy one, so a song of this length was ideal, and because it actually had a bit of a story to the song, it was almost like a mini movie, and the clip of this song was immensely popular with audiences in Australia.

In New Zealand, they had a similar program, Radio With Pictures, and the same thing happened there, as the song rocketed up the charts, and also got regular time on the TV program.

Nesmith heard of the popularity of the song, and how it was doing so well, and there was a hastily planned short tour of Australia with his band, and while here in Australia, he was asked to appear on the TV program Countdown for an interview and to introduce the clip itself. He also made a short trip to New Zealand, (without the band) to see why the song was doing so well there, and while in New Zealand, he saw Radio With Pictures, a similar format to the Australian program, Countdown. Impressed by the format of these shows, and the way they specifically differed from Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, these two new shows being basically the music with just introductions, Mike Nesmith wondered if this format might actually translate to the U.S.

Back in the U.S. he worked on the format and came up with a made for TV show called Pop Clips for the Nickelodeon Cable Network. It became quite popular, mainly along similar lines of the Australian and New Zealand formats, just the clips with what amounted to a video jockey, the TV version of Radio’s Disc Jockey. In 1980, Nesmith, ever the thinking businessman, sold the format, and the show to Time Warner, and they then further developed the format into MTV which started in 1981, and then became the monster that is MTV these days.

This song Rio was then included in a video package titled Elephant Parts, again with purpose made video songs and humorous clips as well, in fact one of those short humorous clips is shown at the end of the song here in today’s clip. This video, Elephant Parts has the huge distinction of being awarded the very first Grammy Award for a music video.

So, even though this song is all but unknown, it has a distinct place up there in the Pantheon of modern music, so as you watch the video, be fully aware that Mike Nesmith has another claim to fame other than the one always mentioned when his name comes up.

Mike Nesmith is the man who actually gave us the themed video clip, and helped start up the Music Video era.

“Reno! Why Reno?”

“Not Reno, Rio! Rio de Jennero!”

Vale Mike Nesmith, the man who invented what is now the standard for music videos.

Anton Lang uses the screen name of TonyfromOz, and he writes at this site, PA Pundits International on topics related to electrical power generation, from all sources, concentrating mainly on Renewable Power, and how the two most favoured methods of renewable power generation, Wind Power and all versions of Solar Power, fail comprehensively to deliver levels of power required to replace traditional power generation. His Bio is at this link.

Tagged: Mike Nesmith, Music, Music Video, Popular Music, Popular Music History

Posted in: History, Music